Donald Trump was fined $10,000 on Wednesday for violating a gag order in his civil fraud trial in New York.
Judge Arthur Engoron imposed the fine after determining that comments Trump made to reporters during a break in the trial violated the gag order.
Trump had criticized the judge’s principal law clerk in a post on his Truth Social platform, and the judge had issued a partial gag order on Trump on October 3.
Last week, Trump was fined $5,000 for not promptly removing the offending post from his 2024 presidential campaign website.
The latest fine came after Trump said Engoron is a “very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Trump’s attorneys said he was referring to witness Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer turned bitter foe, and not to the judge’s clerk.
After Trump spoke, the judge said “the defendant was not credible” and imposed the fine.
He abruptly left the courtroom shortly afterward.
Trump is accused of inflating the value of the real estate assets of the Trump Organization to receive more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
He has repeatedly attacked Engoron, calling him a “Trump-hating judge,” but the October 3 gag order only ordered a halt to attacks on court staff.
